Today, city infrastructures are changing rapidly and coming to the next-generation of urbanization using new technologies and approaches. In the coming days, everything from road traffic to municipal services could be more effectively managed, and environmental issues from noise levels to air pollution improved. In the approach to the Smart Cities Mission, countries or governments are now promoting their state cities to provide core infrastructure and a decent quality of life to their citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of smart solutions.
Smart cities leverage intelligent solutions to optimize infrastructure and smart and responsive governance to engage citizens in the management of their city. With this approach, the world is moving quickly toward an environment where autonomous vehicles communicate with each other and interface with cloud services alongside smart traffic signals and road sensors to drive safely without human intervention.
Making a City Smart
A smart city initiative means the city municipal uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) to boost operational efficiency, share information with the public and improve both the quality of government services and citizen welfare. Additionally, in the approach to making a city smart, data and digital technology are needed to put together to make better decisions and advance the quality of life.
To make a smart city, a technology base, specific application and its adoption by cities, companies and the public are essential. Additionally, a report on smart city initiative recognizes digital twins and urban modeling, resilient cities, micro-mobility, circular cities, and smart spaces as the five new urban strategy shifts that can make smart cities smarter.
Technology Paving the Way to Smart City
Using technology, the city administration is able to garner city intelligence and this intelligence when combined with the operations, make the cities smarter and safer. For a city to be smart, it is significant to create a two-way communication channel using information and communication technology (ICT). It bridges the gaps between the citizens and the government where the individuals can interact with the government and in response, the government can build a city based on the choice of its citizens.
The Internet of Things (IoT) also plays a crucial role in making a city smarter. It is connecting each device that is part of a smart city so that they can talk and make decisions for themselves which in turn enables managing resources of a high-density region. Thus, all smart solutions in a smart city are based on IoT where they are connected and smart enough to decide their actions.
For the smart urban landscape, sensors are also a crucial component of any intelligent control system. The availability of a horde of different sensors and unceasingly evolving technology allows applications that were infeasible in the past due to high costs and limited availability. To a smart city concept, blockchain application is new that secures data flow. However, integrating it into smart cities could better connect all city services while strengthening security and transparency. the technology, in some ways, is likely to affect cities through smart contracts, assisting with billing, processing transactions and handling facilities management.
In brief, all these smart, digital solutions can advance multiple aspects of the quality of life, making cities smarter, with safety, saving time, increasing job opportunities, enhancing health, improving connectedness, environment, among others.
